Through this support, ND Biosciences will apply its unique technologies and expertise in protein biochemistry and immuno-assay development to develop more accurate and sensitive assays to quantify α-Synuclein (α-Syn) protein levels. α-Syn is one of the primary constituents of the pathological lesions found in brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, multiple system atrophy and Lewy body dementia. Individuals that have multiple copies of the α-Syn gene suffer from PD, as they produce more α-Syn, a phenomenon which has been shown to promote aggregation and pathology formation in different preclinical models of PD.

α-Syn has emerged as a central player in pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease and is today one of the most sought-after targets for the development of Parkinson’s therapies. “α-Syn is found circulating in both blood and CSF and its levels change during the course of the disease. We believe that developing sensitive assays that enable accurate assessment of α-Syn has great potential for the development of diagnostics that can be deployed for early detection, monitoring disease progression and assessing response to experimental therapies” said Hilal Lashuel, founder and CSO of ND Biosciences.

“We believe that the failure of most existing assays to capture the diversity of α-Syn species in biological fluids underlies the inconsistent reporting of total α-Syn levels by different groups and in different PD cohorts. At ND Biosciences we have developed technologies that allow the reconstruction of the biochemical diversity of this protein with great precision, thus placing us in the best position to develop sensitive and accurate detection and quantification assays for total α-Syn”, said Bilal Fares, co-founder and director of R&D at ND Biosciences.

About ND-Biosciences

ND BioSciences is a biotechnology company that was founded with the mission of developing and providing innovative technologies, solutions, tools, assays, and services to accelerate the development of early diagnostics and therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. ND BioSciences has developed powerful proprietary technologies and innovative tools that enable for the first time reproducing, at both the biochemical and structural levels, the proteoforms and pathological species found in the brain and biological fluids of patients suffering from different neurodegenerative diseases.